21,000 expatriate votes arrive in country by post

Voting rights of expatriates have started arriving from abroad in the wake of the upcoming 13th National Parliament elections and referendum. Postal ballots of 21,500 expatriates have reached Bangladesh by Tuesday (January 27) morning.

Salim Ahmad Khan, Team Leader of the Election Commission's 'OCV-SDI' project, confirmed this information to the media on Tuesday (January 27). He said that a total of 21,508 postal ballots have reached the country by 10:30 am today.

He said that a total of 766,862 expatriates were sent ballots from Bangladesh to ensure the voting rights of expatriates. Of these, according to the latest information, 493,920 expatriates have received ballots, 425,788 have voted, and 370,322 ballots have been deposited in mailboxes (deposited at the post office of the relevant country after voting).

The commission has requested expatriates to vote 'as soon as possible' after collecting the ballot papers and send them to the nearest post office. According to the order, the ballots must reach the office of the concerned returning officer by 4:30 pm on February 12. Any ballots received after the specified time will not be counted.

This is the first time that a record number of voters have been registered through the 'Postal Vote BD' app. A total of 1.533 million voters have applied to vote by postal ballot, more than half of whom are expatriates.

Along with expatriates, three categories of citizens within the country are getting this opportunity: officials and employees engaged in electoral duties, government employees working outside their own areas, and voters in prison (in legal custody).